The Reuters vehicle story is an abosulte fraud.

A complete and total fraud.

And a bad one at that.

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As everybody from the President to the Lance Corporals say, ‘when a terrorist lights a fire cracker, its news, but when we take down a terrorist cell, no one hears about it.’

This new battlespace is not fought on a fixed terrain.  In war, it is often said that terrain and technology are neutral, i.e., night sights don’t know who is wearing them, the ground doesn’t care who is walking on it and a concrete wall will stop rounds from an AK-47 or an M-4.

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by Richard Nadler

One certainty by which American news viewers can set their clocks is the unremitting hostility of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to America’s attempt to plant democracy in the Middle East.  On Sunday, Aug. 27, watchers of Late Edition could see Blitzer interview – no, hector – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  The segment, which ran 3500 words in transcript, provides a remarkable window into CNN’s freakish hatred not only of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but of our Iraqi allies in that fight.

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Last we looked at a Poll of Iraqis who actually live in Iraq.

The Iraqi news media’s effect on the poll was obvious in one question.

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The experts on how things are going in Iraq are not former State Department officials, former CIA officials who may never have set foot in the country.

The experts are not Senators who have taken junkets or the various other bloviators who populate the green rooms of cable news outlets.

They are the Iraqis themselves.

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and why you haven’t heard

According to the New York Times, civilian deaths in Baghdad are at an all-time high, marking the failure of the Baghdad security plan launched by the al-Maliki government, and the descent of Iraq into civil war.

But according to Iraq’s national security minister Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, the sectarian violence peaked in mid-July, and has declined sharply since then, indicating the success of the security plan.

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Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is “handling the campaign against terrorism” according to the most recent NYT/CBS poll. (Page 7 of PDF file)

The poll also shows that fighting terrorism is the number one issue “for political leaders to concentrate on right now.”

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Last weekend, roughly one million Iraqis celebrated a holy day in Baghdad.  And they were relatively unmolested.

Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s oppressed Shi’ite majority was forbidden to congregate for festivals.  In fact, all non-Ba’athist public gatherings were treated as insurrections.

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“It’s hard not to be optimistic,” said Army Col. Michael Beech, who commands the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, tasked with clearing the Dura neighborhood of Baghdad of the terrorists and criminal gangs behind the sectarian violence that exploded there in recent months.  “I walk the streets of Dura every day, and what I see is that every day there are additional shops open that weren’t there before.  I see the Dura market has increased traffic, and people in the Dura market shopping every day.  The feedback I get from people on the streets is very promising.”

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Last Summer it was a running joke among the Lance Corporals that U.S. Marine Corps had a new Occupational Specialty–03-5-oh—the infantry police officer.

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